dear anthony bourdain...

Some of you might have seen my fired up tweet last night, seen above (if not, follow me @kiirabritt), that I sent out while watching last night's episode of No Reservations. Let's get this out of the way up front: I'm an Anthony Bourdain LOVER. Love the show, love his writing, love his uncensored banter and his I don't give a f*** kind of attitude. Quite frankly, I wish I could get away with some of the stuff he does but alas, I'm far too sweet. ;)

However, last night I found myself becoming increasingly angry and seriously defensive when Bourdain brought up the topic of food bloggers. A category of people he was quick to label as an unfortunate phenomenon of the internet. That we exploit food. That we become so obsessed with what it is we're eating that we forget what the food actually means. Err, whatever that means.

Now, hold the damn phone for a minute, Tony. Correct me if I'm wrong (but omfg am I so unarguably right) does your show not follow you around the world, filming the food you're eating, all the while you explore the culture, find out all the "under the radar" spots and then, dare I say it, exploit them too? You're doing exactly what us food bloggers do but in a slightly different medium. While we may snap a picture, your cameras are still rolling.

Which is why I was so delighted to see this piece today on Gawker, titled, "Anthony Bourdain is a Hypocrite on No Reservations." Please read it here.

This is not going to make me a Bourdain hater nor will I stop watching the show and reading his books. But I think he, and other food-blogger-haters, need to take a step back and freaking chill out. At the end of the day, we're all people who have an undying passion and appreciation for great food.

In other words, we're on the same team. So let's play nice.